


Chaos is a Lie

by RedGold



Category: Timeless (TV 2016)
Genre: Awkward, Both Families, F/M, Flynn and His Family, Flynn gets his family back, Lorena and Iris, Lorynn, Not a Garcy or Lyatt fic, Sass, The Time Team, Time Travel, after murdering through time for them, and, but this is unabashedly a story about, but will it be asked for, complicated feelings, forgiveness can be granted, okay a little bit of garcy and some lyatt thrown in there, people change, side-eyes, there will be tears
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-29
Updated: 2018-06-01
Packaged: 2019-05-15 04:48:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14783858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedGold/pseuds/RedGold
Summary: Future Lucy and Wyatt warn that once the team learns how to go back into their own time, the consequences are far more dangerous and should only be done under extreme circumstances. When the breakthrough is made, the team agrees to go back to stop Lorena and Iris from being murdered, only to realize that in doing so, they could be opening the door to let Rittenhouse win control over the world and time itself.Lorena and Iris must die, or at least, Flynn must believe that they do.Faking their death with the help of Agent Christopher, who has spent the last six years keeping that secret and trusting it’s the right thing to do, Lorena and Iris have been living their life under new identities, waiting for time to come back on itself.Now that he has Lorena and Iris back, Flynn can’t walk away from them as he was so determined to do. But six years is a long time… even if you have a time machine.





	1. They're Waiting For You

**Author's Note:**

> I have a lot of headcanons and ideas for stories, but this was the one I was asked to write by a twitter friend. It is also the last one in my series that I've written in my head. So it will refer to some events that would have happened in a prequel story (if I ever get around to writing them) but don't worry, I'll make sure I explain it in the narrative.
> 
> Just know that directly preceding this story is one where the team goes back to 2014, tries to stop the Rittenhouse team from taking out Lorena and Iris. That plan is scrubbed once they realize that if Flynn never steals the Mothership... Rittenhouse will gain control of it early and there might be no one to stop them. They would be going back to VERY different timeline. 
> 
> So Flynn talks to Lorena, who I headcanon as a former NSA cryptographer (how else did these two meet, a baking class?), and convinces her to fake her death with Iris. They give the crime scene photos they brought from the future to Agent Christopher (who doesn't see Flynn in all this) and she uses it to sell the narrative. Then the team returns home, hoping that their plan worked.

**Chapter One - They're Waiting For You ******

********

********

“My wife, and my child, are alive,” Flynn said as he stood in front of Agent Christopher. 

Christopher had her hand on her gun, she was afraid of him now that he had learned the truth. That she had been hiding his family from him. But the Agent Christopher who saw them off on this mission, she hadn’t been a part of the scheme to fake his family’s death. No, they dragged her into it in 2014 once the original plan went south and they came to the stark realization that they couldn’t alter history, not like that.

“This wasn’t an easy secret to keep,” Christopher replied sternly, her stance cautious but she wasn’t backing away. “Lucy, Rufus, they told me to let this play out. I trust them.”

“I know.” He thought maybe he could be angry, but there were far too many emotions swirling around him to pick just one. “Take me to my family.”

There was a momentary pause, then Christopher took her hand off her holstered weapon and gave a slight nod. “They’re waiting for you.”

Christopher turned, and Flynn moved to follow. He was going to finally see his family again, and that idea hurt. It burrowed into his chest and latched onto his heart with talons of iron. He had waited for this day, he had murdered through time for this day, and now that it was here… he was tearing apart on the inside. 

Glancing back, the team stood there, watching him. Rufus and Jiya with bright smiles on their faces, their happiness for him far too genuine. Both had lost each other. Both had saved each other. Suckers for happy endings, those two.

Wyatt had that annoying half smile on his face. As unfortunate as it was for Flynn to admit, Wyatt knew exactly what he was feeling right now. Wyatt tried to save Jessica and failed, an unfortunate by-product of faulty information regarding her killer. And now she was still a Rittenhouse pawn, their child with her. But Flynn trusted Wyatt with Lorena’s life and he never once hesitated to help him. Too damn noble sometimes, that one.

And then there was Lucy. If he looked at her, saw whatever expression she wore on her face, then it would hurt too much. So he didn’t, and instead continued forward, following Christopher out of the bunker.

A half hour drive. All this time his family was half an hour away from him. 

But not until this timeline, he had to remember that.

“No one told me exactly why it was so important to keep them safe and presumed dead, no matter what happened,” Christopher said as they travelled up the elevator of a high-end apartment complex courtesy of funds Rufus had _borrowed_ from Mason’s accounts in 2014. “I figured it out eventually, but until then, I thought it best to keep them close.” The door opened with a ding. “And this area has one of the best school systems in SoCal.”

“Thank you, Denise,” the words rolled awkwardly off his tongue. “For keeping them safe.”

They stopped in front of a door and she looked up at him. “I did it for them.”

“I know.” Flynn was never going to assume anything less.

Christopher knocked on the door and Flynn’s heart began to tighten again. This was worse than the first time an op went bad. He thought he’d be ready, after all this time, after all that he had done…

The door swung inward lightly, Flynn found himself staring at a pair of shoes. Sensible ones, Lorena never really cared for heels unless it was a formal event. No one spoke, only Christopher moving off to the side to give them their space. The air was a vacuum around them.

Taking a deep breath, he lifted his head, his heart stopping for the fact that it simply didn’t know what else to do. 

How can someone look so happy and so sad at the same time?

She had cut her hair very short and dyed it black. Part of him recognized that this was a smart, tactical move, to hide her appearance. The other part wanted to reach up and somehow make the locks reappear. It was a fleeting thought that stabbed cold. 

Stick to the plan. See them again, make sure they are safe, and leave them to live happy, peaceful lives without the cloud of darkness that he had become hanging over them.

“You should come in,” Lorena barely whispered as she stepped back, pulling the door completely open. 

As if he was entering an IED laden side street, Flynn stepped cautiously forward, his eyes taking in everything around him. The open living room and kitchen was so essentially Lorena. Blues and greys, lines and angles. Order, because Chaos is a lie.

It had been six years to Lorena, only hours for Flynn, since he had walked away from his wife and child after sending them into hiding. Time had changed her, it had changed them both, and no more so than in their eyes.

“Daddy!!” the word cut through him and he could not breath. 

Iris came running into the living room. Now almost twelve, she had grown tall, taking after him as he knew she would. He dropped to his knees to greet her, arms wrapping her tightly, almost crushing her, but he had just enough sense to only hold on for dear life.

“You’re home!” Iris practically yelled into his ear and tears streamed from his eyes.

Abort Mission: Situation Compromised.

Flynn couldn’t do it, he knew in that moment that there was no way he was going to walk away from them again. Even if everything he had done in the past six years had been in preparation to do so.


	2. It Seemed Prudent

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. Still no word on a Season Three though. :(

**Chapter Two – It Seemed Prudent**

Flynn remembered when he could still toss Iris into the air and catch her as she squealed in delight. Now he had lost feeling in his left leg as she half-sat on his lap, between the sofa and coffee table. 

“This is my favorite,” Iris pulled the photo album forward and stabbed at a picture of her standing in front of a T-Rex at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles. She was eight, her little arms imitating the stance of the beast. “T-Rex’s are amazing, so big and powerful! They can take on anything!”

“Oh, I bet you could take a T-Rex,” Flynn laughed, making a rawr sound and tickling her side. 

Iris giggled and squealed, the effect of which both lifted his heart whilst shooting it with lead. 

“Here’s another one,” Lorena said as she knelt down on the other side of the coffee table, placing an open album in front of them. 

The photos showed Iris performing in a school play, _Oklahoma_ if Flynn had to guess. The book was piled upon others, a near professional archive of Iris Flynn’s life for the past six years. Photos printed out and painstakingly scrapbooked together. A stack of DVD’s taken of recitals, award ceremonies, martial arts championships.

Christopher’s phone rang. She had been standing in the kitchen, giving them their space for the past hour. Like it or not, Flynn was still technically a wanted criminal and she wasn’t going to let him out of her sight. She answered the call and slowly walked farther away from them.

Flynn went back to the photos. “Thank you,” was all he could say as he flipped the page. “You didn’t have to do this.”

“Would you believe I did it for myself?” she replied, shifting her weight. “Memories become even more precious when you’re faced with just how fleeting they truly are.”

They were dead, for six long years they were dead until they weren’t again. Flynn had no idea how to respond to that.

There was a beep and Lorena’s phone jostled were it had been sat on the sofa in the shuffle of memories. He grabbed it out of habit to pass it over. There was a text message on the screen: _How does 8 sound?_ The contact was named Phil.

It was none of his business. Flynn had told Lorena to do whatever she had to do to live a happy life with their daughter. Said everything but the words “forget about me and move on with your life.” That had been six years ago to her. She could have gotten remarried and had three more kids, and he would have been okay with that… or at least make her believe he was. That had been the plan.

“The landlord,” she explained without prompting. “If you’d been here yesterday you’d seen a dozen towels on the kitchen floor. The trash compactor screwed up and back fed water into the dishwasher. It was a mess. He’s coming over tomorrow morning to completely replace it.”

Flynn didn’t know what to say about that either. Something so domestic and ordinary, yet jealously had spiked through him. He had no right to it. Not after...

Heavy steps had Christopher walking towards them. Flynn glanced up to see the pensive look on the woman’s face. She gestured with her head that she wanted to talk to him, and it wasn’t a polite request.

“I’ll be right back, sweetheart,” he said as he kissed her head and gently pushed her off his leg. She found new interests in her toys that had been scattered about.

Ignoring the pain of pins and needles in his leg, it hurt more to let Iris out of his reach. But Flynn stood and moved into the kitchen to talk to Christopher.

“There’s been an attack,” she said. “Rittenhouse tried to grab Michelle and the kids after ball practice.”

“Are they okay?” Lorena asked as she walked up next to him. 

“Michelle is smart, got them away safe,” she assured them. “I’m having them taken to the bunker until we know what the full situation is. I’m also sending men to check on Rufus’ family.”

“You must have Rittenhouse on the ropes,” Lorena said whilst Flynn’s mind moved a mile a minute. “Going directly after family members, they have to know that’s a bad idea with this group.” The words were dry with just a touch of gallows humor.

“I’m sorry to cut this short, Flynn,” Christopher turned to him, “but we need to go. We’ll come back again as soon as we know it’s safe.”

“We’re taking Lori and Iris with us.” Flynn didn’t even hesitate. He did the math in his head and this was the only clear answer. 

“Excuse me?” Christopher said as the same time Lorena uttered, “What?”

“They followed your wife, they might have followed you here,” he nearly hissed the words, his voice rising at the implications.

“Garcia,” Lorena warned lowly, gesturing towards Iris. “Keep your voice down.”

Flynn took a second to compose his thoughts. Half of which were warning him that Rittenhouse agents could be busting through the door any second now. His hand inched towards a gun that wasn’t there. “If Rittenhouse had eyes on you, then it won’t take them long to figure out who Lori and Iris are, and they won’t hesitate to finish the job.”

“If they followed us,” Christopher was a little offended. “I always watch for tails.”

“They attacked your wife and your children,” he bit out the words, his entire body going into a type of controlled panic. He wasn’t going to lose them, not after just getting them back. “They grabbed you once before. Do you want to take the chance they won't try again? Because I don’t.”

“Anyone want to ask my opinion?” Lorena crossed her arms, staring slightly indignantly at the both of them.

Christopher’s eyes glanced from him, to Lorena, and then back. “Okay, we play it safe until we know more. I'm sorry, Lori, but how long will it take you to pack up because I really want to see my kids right now.”

He thought Lorena might argue, she wasn’t one to be ordered around, but she would give way to reason when it mattered. Dropping her arms, she vaguely gestured down the hall. “I have go bags in the bedroom, just need to grab them.”

“You have go bags?” Flynn asked in surprise.

“Well, my husband travels six years into the past on a time machine to tell me I have to fake my death and go into hiding, just so that he can go on a vengeance quest through history,” she said with just a slight, sad laugh. “It seemed prudent.”

~~~

“They’re here,” Wyatt said as he slipped his phone into his pocket.

“The bunker’s going to get crowded again,” Rufus commented where he sat next to Jiya at the computer station. 

“Good thing we got the plumbing fixed in the south wing,” Jiya added wryly. 

“You okay?” Rufus asked her softly after Wyatt had moved away towards the entrance. 

“Yeah, I’m fine, just, stupid thoughts.” Making light of them didn’t really make her feel any better about having them. “Remember the last time we let one of the team’s not-dead wives into the bunker? Good times.”

“Lorena isn’t Rittenhouse. You proved that yourself with Project Blue Isle,” he pointed out. 

“I know, hence the stupid thoughts.” Jiya shook her head as if that would help.

“Hey.” Rufus wrapped his arm around her. “It isn’t stupid. After what you went through, it’s perfectly valid to have those thoughts. But at least this time we did a more thorough background check on the not-dead wife.”

Jiya gave a light chuckle, his words actually putting her more at ease. Last year, they discovered that as an NSA cryptographer, Lorena Mackenzie, not yet Lorena Flynn, had worked on Project Blue Isle. It was a Rittenhouse ordered op, engineered by a high-level NSA agent who was a part of the organization. Lorena was assigned to do her job, it would have looked completely legit to her. Just the right level of NSA-shady dealings. 

Correspondence between the Rittenhouse agent and Lorena’s boss proved that she was never approached by them. She _would not be a good fit_ , the man had written in an email. _Mackenzie was best suited to remain a resource where she was._

Years later, Rittenhouse decided a cover up was in order, knocking off everyone who worked on Project Blue Isle in various ways as if they were acting out a Tom Clancy novel. Flynn having run across Rittenhouse at the same time was just a cosmic coincidence. A weird twist of fate.

They thought this was the key to saving Lorena and Iris. Go back in time and stop the NSA agent when he was young. Keep Rittenhouse out of the NSA altogether if they could. Jiya wasn’t there, but she was told Flynn didn’t hesitate to kill the man who would eventually order his family’s deaths. No one really tried to stop him.

Jiya remembered clearly Flynn nearly bounding down the stairs upon their return. She hated to tell him the bad news. Rittenhouse simply got someone else in the position. Project Blue Isle went forward. Lorena was still a lose end that got tied up. A cruel twist of fate this time.

Flynn grew angry, and for a moment Jiya feared for her life. But he took his emotions out on the tablet, a table, and two chairs, then stormed off. No one knew what to say. Eventually, Wyatt, of all people, was the one who went and talked to him. After all, Wyatt was the only one who legitimately knew exactly what Flynn was going through.

There was a rustling of noise, then gaggles of voices. 

"Come on." Rufus stood up and offered his hand. "Lorena is nice, and Iris is adorable, which she obviously doesn't get from her father."

Jiya snorted and she brushed away the memories of being kidnapped, drugged, and lost in San Francisco for three years. And by brushed she meant buried them down, locked away where they belonged.

Everyone was shuffled off into the South Wing where the electricity, plumbing, and leaks had been finally fixed so the area was fit for habitation. Agent Christopher stood at the entrance.

"You sure you don't want me to grab your mother?" Christopher asked as they approached.

"You said no one tried to go after her, right?" Rufus asked for confirmation.

"There is no indication she was being watched," she assured him. "But there is possible evidence this might have nothing to do with Rittenhouse, but I case I worked back in '13."

"Wow, okay," Rufus gave her a confused look. "How sure are you about that?"

"Pretty sure," she crossed her arms, "but not sure enough for Flynn."

"Right." Rufus let out a long breath. "Okay, well, I know my momma will freak out if she learns about time travel, so, if you think it's safe for her, then I trust you."

"I'll make sure I'll double the agents watching her," she replied. 

"Thanks." Rufus always worried that Rittenhouse might try to use his family against him, they had threatened to before. But at this point, it would have been last ditch for them, a sure sign that they had no more moves to play. 

To Jiya, this only meant Rittenhouse still had a few cards up their sleeves.

It didn’t take long to get everyone shuffled around. The Christopher’s were given three smaller rooms together since the children were teenagers and there was enough drama to be had in the situation. Lorena and Iris were given one of larger ones to share. 

“Rufus,” Lorena recognized him as soon as they approached. 

“You remember me.” It was more of a statement than a question.

“Hard to forget anything that happened that night,” she admitted with a slight lift of her brow and tug of her cheek. “Plus you’re wearing the same hoodie.”

Jiya chuckled. “He always wears this hoodie.”

“You know, it was only a couple of hours ago for me,” Rufus defended himself. 

"I'm Jiya," she introduced herself.

"Lorena," the woman offered her hand. "You can call me Lori though, most people do."

"Hhmmm," Jiya considered this as she shook her hand. "A Lori and a Lucy in the building, that could get confusing.

"If it's easier, you can call me Mackenzie." Lorena gave oddly sad smile, then looked past them. “Apparently we’re in here.”

Flynn was walking down the hall, a large bag in one hand, a smaller one in the other. Iris had hold of the strap of the smaller one like she was carrying it, though it was obviously too heavy for her. When Flynn saw the look on her face, he just smiled and said, “She wanted to help.”

“Yeah, that is adorable,” Jiya whispered to Rufus.

“They grow up so fast,” Rufus joked back.

Stepping aside, Flynn and Iris went into the room, dropping the bags next to the bed with thump. 

“Why don’t you give Iris a tour,” Lorena said as Flynn and the little girl walked back into the hall. “I’ll get us unpacked.”

“Come on,” Flynn said as he picked her up, perhaps for a moment forgetting she wasn’t five anymore. “I’ll show you were we hide the good cookies.”

“There are good cookies?” Rufus asked in the most endearing way.

“Yeah, we hide them from you.” Flynn grinned and Jiya let out another snort. He wasn’t wrong.

“You can spoil her today,” Lorena said, rubbing her forehead, “just don’t make a habit out of it.”

Flynn chuckled, then gestured down the hall. “My room is the third door down if you need anything.”

“Noted, thanks,” she replied before giving Iris a little smile and wave. 

Lorena then headed into the room and Flynn started walking down the hall, Iris in his arms and Rufus following, looking for the elusive good cookies. 

Now, Jiya knew what it was like to see Rufus after three years of being stuck in the past, then after five hours of him being dead. The touching, the holding, the constant reassurance that his heart was still beating. She also knew what it was like to be stuck in close quarters for a long time with him and getting to that point where sometimes you don’t need a touch or kiss or caress, to know that someone loves you and cares for you, because they are there for you.

Flynn and Lorena had been married for six years before that night, so it was easy to imagine them falling into the latter. Although, after six years apart, it seemed unrealistic they weren’t in the former. 

It being none of her business, Jiya moved on to check on Michelle, see if they needed anything. Everything was going pretty well, all things considered. 

Heading back to the kitchen/living area, Jiya found Lorena standing next to the computer system. She was staring up at the Lifeboat, arms crossed, like she was trying to figure out if a Jackson Pollock was art or just a mess that should have really been cleaned up.

"Not what you were expecting?" Jiya asked as she walked up next to the woman.

"No, not really," she admitted with a curious tilt of her head. "I thought it would be less..."

"Web-camera-ish?" 

"Yeah," Lorena chuckled. 

"Hey, if it works, it works," she said and sat down at the computers. 

"Can't argue with that," Lorena replied quietly, letting out a deep breath and turning away from the machine.

That was about the extent of polite conversation Jiya thought she could muster at the moment. She was still trying to ignore the anxiety that had bubbled up, plus Lorena didn't look to be talkative. In fact, she just looked sad. But the kind of melancholy sad that one gets when they randomly get reminded their father passed away years ago.

The alarm went off.

“What’s that,” Lorena was immediately on edge, nearly spinning a three-sixty.

“Mothership just made a jump back in time,” Jiya told her as she typed across the keyboard to bring up the location details. She had everything on screen when the rest of the team found themselves crowding around the station. 

“Where’s Iris?” Lorena asked Flynn.

“With Misses Agent Christopher,” he answered without looking at Lorena.

Christopher pointedly ignored him and got down to business. “Where is the Mothership now?”

“Uh, Chicago, June 3rd, 1884,” Jiya read off the screen.

“Chicago 1884?” Wyatt asked. “That’s like two years before the Haymarket Massacre.”

“You mean where I got blown up?” Rufus let out a nervous laugh.

“You got blown up a little,” Wyatt jibbed back.

Jiya laughed but her attention had gone elsewhere. In the reflection of the computer screens, she saw both Flynn and Lorena trade glances at the mention of the Haymarket Massacre. But Flynn quickly went eyes front, pointedly not looking at the woman. 

“June 3rd, 1884, was the Republican National Convention,” Lucy informed everyone. “They picked who was going to run on the Republican ticket for the 1884 election.”

“So they want to rig the election?” Rufus asked.

“Republicans lost that year, to Grover Cleveland.” Lucy shrugged and then shook her head slightly as she was thinking. “It’s possible that if they pick a better candidate they could win. Ah, Teddy Roosevelt was there too, before he became president.”

“Odd time and place for an assassination of a future president,” Wyatt pointed out, always thinking tactically.

Christopher gained what Jiya liked to mentally refer to as ‘the mom voice’ and said, “Whatever they are planning, it can’t be good. So you best get going.”

There was the usual shuffling. Wyatt and Flynn grabbing their guns. Lucy scanning the archives for any little detail she might have forgotten. Rufus checking the systems before giving Jiya a kiss and heading into the lifeboat. When the other three climbed aboard, they gave her a slight nod, a not quite goodbye because a see you later sounded too trite.

Flynn didn’t even look at Lorena, well, he tried to pretend that he hadn’t.

The lifeboat disappeared in a woosh of air which was actually more of an annoyance now than anything. But there was something to be said about the look of awe and wonder on the face of someone who sees it for the first time.

“Cool, huh?” Jiya asked Lorena once Christopher had walked away. 

“Now that was about what I was expecting,” she said with an amazed huff of breath.

Lorena started to leave and curiosity got the better of Jiya, "Hey, Lori?"

"Yeah?"

"What's the significance of the Haymarket Massacre?" Jiya asked and Lorena's expression went immediately blank. "I saw you and Flynn exchange glances at its mention. I think it was the only time you two have even looked at each other since you got here."

"It's..." she trailed off and there was that melancholy again. "The truth is, Flynn and I would have never met, never gotten married, never had Iris if not for the Haymarket Massacre."

Jiya thought about that for a second. "That confuses me and I work with time travel."

Lorena chuckled and leaned against a table. "When I worked for the NSA, I was assigned to work crypto out of a classified location, on a classified mission. Flynn was there too, but our paths really had no reason to cross. Then one day he's dropping something off when he sees this book sitting on my desk. It was about the Haymarket Massacre."

"You had a book on it?" Jiya found this both hard to believe and about on par with all the other crazy things that had happened.

"I liked to pick up non-fiction books to read when on assignment. Whatever was on the rack." Lorena shrugged. "I used them to remind myself that chaos is a thing that exists in this world. I was wrong of course, chaos is a lie." There was so much heaviness in her words Jiya could feel it pressing down on her. "Flynn stopped to check out the book, he's always been a bit of a history geek. We talked, I let him borrow it, and... the dominos kept falling."

There was something in Lorena's voice that just... hurt.

"Sounds like a Nicholas Sparks novel," Jiya mused. "You really love him."

"I really do," the words were no better than a whisper.

It was none of her business, but Jiya asked anyway, "Then why have you two barely made eye contact?"

"Because loving someone, and being in love, are two different things." Lorena shrugged again, bowing her head slightly. Jiya thought maybe she was trying to keep herself from spilling any tears.

"So you're not in love with him anymore?" Jiya didn't think that was right. There was too much pain for there not to be something more. "You know, he stole a time machine to get you back. Then channeled his inner Keanu Reeves and went all John Wick on history."

"And he also stood in front of me six years ago and told me to move on with my life," Lorena laughed, short bursts of pain. "I saw it in his eyes. He had moved on. Fallen in love with someone else. Or maybe just fallen out of love. Regardless, I have had six years to come to grips with that fact. I've been through all the stages, and now I just... accept."

“That must have hurt,” Jiya said quietly.

“Still does,” Lori admitted. “But the stages of grief are only there to make the pain an easier load to bear.”


End file.
